Battling goalies take it to overtime in Friday night's Rockford versus East Grand Rapids hockey tie

GRAND RAPIDS – The story of Friday night’s hockey game at Griff’s was of two equally matched goalies taking the ice. East Grand Rapids’ Steven Longfellow and Rockford’s Sam Price battled the barrage of shots ending the night in a 2-2 tie. Both goalies saw their share of the action with 29 saves for Longfellow and 26 for Price.

“This is what we expected,” said Rams coach Ed VanPortfliet. “I knew it would be a very tight game like that. It always is. Every time we play East Grand Rapids, over the last four-five years, I think half the games have ended in ties and the other ones have probably been one goal games. Our two programs are pretty evenly matched up.

“Their goalie (Steven) Longfellow is very good, and both goaltenders played exceptional,” he continued. “It was very good goaltending.”

Rockford went on the attack in the first period with a double-digit advantage in shots which resulted in a Rams 1-0 lead. Tyler Bradfield came down the ice stick side and eeked it by Longfellow. Braden King was awarded the assist.

“I thought we came out strong in the first period; we carried the play,” said VanPortfliet. “I think shots were 15-5 in favor of us, but as the game went on I think they wore us down.”

The Pioneers got their chance as the second period winded down. With only 30 seconds until the break, Nate Keller made a shot that got lost in the Rams shuffle. It was lost, at least, until it made its way across the goal line.

“We had plenty of scoring chances; we just couldn’t capitalize on them,” said EGR coach Nick Jennette. “Their goalie had some unbelievable saves. Overall our effort, I was pleased for the most part. It was kind of sloppy at times. Rockford is a good team, so to tie them at their place -- is obviously not the result we wanted -- but it’s acceptable.”

Defense was huge in the 1-1 third period and the 0-0 overtime.

“Nate Keller and Ben Keller are two of our defensemen,” said Jennette. “They play a lot of minutes and they stepped up big. Some of the other guys like Timmy Casey and Will Boeschenstein, they stepped up huge for us.’

The Pioneers pulled ahead on a power play edge with 9:35 left in the third. Sam Forstner got the goal with assists going to Peter Stewart and Jordan Sanford. They kept the advantage for the next seven minutes until Rockford’s Noah Gleason bounced the puck off Longfellow’s shoulder which made its way to the back of the net. Assists were given to Steve Fraser and Bradfield.

“We are looking for consistency, playing strong from the drop of the puck to the end” said Jennette. “We have some lulls in pretty much every game and get away from our system. I would like to see us play three strong periods of hockey.”

East Grand Rapids is 3-3-2 in conference play and 9-6-2 overall, while Rockford (5-1-3, 8-7-3) sits in a three-way tie for first place in the conference.

“Right now we are focused on the Tier I championship,” said VanPortfliet. “We are in a three-way battle with Reeths Puffer and Catholic Central, so every point is critical. We need to get healthy. We’re playing everyone this year, and that has helped us, but we need to get everyone back.”